2ö ... - - -, - - PROF I LE,S THE NEWYORKER THAT SAD YOUNG MAN X L was quiet on the Riviera, and then the Fitzgeralds arrived, Scott and Zelda and Scotty. The summer season opened. There had been talk about their coming. They were coming; they were not. One day they appeared on the beach. They had played tennis the day be- fore, and were badly burned. Every- body was concerned about their burns. They must keep their shoulders covered; they must rub on olive oil. Scott was too burned to go in the water, and much of the time, he sat aside from the rush of things, a reflective, staid pa ter f amilias. That the Fitzgeralds are the best looking couple in modern literary society doesn't do them justice, knowing what we do about beauty and brains. That they might be the handsomest pair at any collegiate houseparty, inspiring alumni to warnings about the pitfalls ahead of the young, is more to the point, al- though Scott really looks more as the undergraduate would like to look, than the way he general- ly does. It takes some years of training as the best host of the younger set, and as a much photographed and paragraphed author, to be quite so affable and perfectly at ease with all the world. Scott feels that he is getting on in years, that he is no longer young. It weighs upon him, troubles him. He is almost thirty. Seldom has he allowed a person of such advanced age to enter his books. "I have written a story. It IS not about the younger generation. The hero is twenty-nine." It must be some comfort to him that he is so superbl y preserved, so stocky, muscular, clear-skinned, with wide, fresh, green-blue eyes, hair, blond not grey, with no lines of worry or senility, no saggings anywhere. Mrs. Fitzgerald doesn)t show her age either; she might be in her 'teens. Perhaps Scotty does. Yes, there is no denying she looks her four. There were rumors that Scott had had a sip or two of something up in Pa is, and had come South to rest. No one could have guessed it, but he is summary with any such doubts: "Ðon)t you know I am one of the most notorious drinkers of the younger generation? " There have been whispers certainly. But the young man who drives his i; : ,":tK t1 :'. " t.1 '1 ::::: -:..:-:.: .* . i :1 : ht Mftfø"* % "t?rMI :::: . }; ?:. ::.:", , tk .,:-:.:.: b; i ::$ .., - -. ......... '. ..:.... .:. *:::y,.. " ,:-:.............:::. &;\ :. "f;:è: : .,::::,. .. .. 1 J , 'S..... : :.:::::-;: ":;.: ....v:"..;..., :: A: {%% :.;.:.:.;.I'<c- -:.;.:.' . ;::::::=-'::':/.:' : ::.::: ." "'::l.,'. ..::t..:- r< '" ./,::</ ::.< ).;.:;. ..- '. . t 'r '., 'r: ' _ 1 , . , . . . , : : ' , . , , ' . : , . :. ... , '. : ,J " , : ' ; < :[ . ' ':. , ::' . " it. , :: , . , .I ' . ,... . "": \t /m:' " : . ;t \ ( Ii , . ::':}i:':::!:::.:' ::::: = : .: : :,,/:::., :::::..-::::: :....;:-. ..... :1-:: :m t f: . .:: . :j"':'iN 1.1:;,::;11 ..' ' i;ßY':; .. i . I '. ''':: , .: V"".' F. Scott Fitzgerald publici ty manager in to a lake, as Scott once did, is bound to get some reputa- tion of that sort. There was no rea- son on this occasion why he should not have turned the car to the right as most people did, and as the publicity man comfortably expected, but having had perhaps a cocktail or two, it seemed more amusing to turn to the left off the road. The publicity man was not drowned however. That was after one of those Long Island parties which established his place before the world as a host. If he is worried now about the advancing years he had better buy up two or three Biltmores before he extends that gen- eral invitation: "Grow old along with me! "The best is yet to be-." This popularity on two continents may explain something of the finan- cial mystery which so appals him. Ever since "This Side of Para- dise", money has poured in upon this young couple, thousands and thousands a month. And just as fast it has poured out. Where it goes, no one seems to know. Least of all evidently, the Fitz- geralds. They complain that nothing is left to show for it. Mrs. Fitzgerald hasn't even a pearl necklace. According to Scott he has known poverty. There was the terrible winter after the war, when he wanted to marry Zelda, and had only a ninety-dollar-a- month advertising job and no prospects. He had gone South to see her, and when they parted at the station he hadn't even enough money for a Pullman. He had to climb into a Pullman, and then sneak through into the day coach. It was then that he saw that advertising did not pay, and he threw up that job, and went home to St. Paul to write a novel. Statistics show that 12,536 young men annually throw up their jobs and go back home to write a novel. ThIs has all come about since Fitz- gerald set the example, for the book he wrote that winter was "This Side of Paradise", and he was launched. His success as an author was a great surprise to the home circle. He had always lived in St. Paul, but the Fitz- geralds were not what is known as literary people, in spite of their de- scent from the author of the "Star Spangled Banner". Scott's father was in business, and Scott was never ad- dicted to prowling about the public Jibrary. He was much too attractive a boy to be allowed much seclusion.